Sang It Proud
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day five hundred and sixty-three:  dare songs pt 2  The tables have been turned in the dare song assignment, and it's Artie's turn.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 26th cycle. Now cycle 27!_

**DARE SONGS, PT 2** - So a little while back (and by that I mean like 200 days, wow ;)) I had the dare songs set, where the club was paired off, with one person daring a song on to the other. If you'll recall at the end of the last one, the tables were turned, and now well... it's finally time for those :D I won't spread 'em out over cycles though, I'll get them all done this week! So here we go...

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><p><strong>"Sang It Proud"<br>Brittany - Artie  
><strong>****DARES PT 1: Sing it out (Quinn - Puck), Sing it loud (Tina - Mercedes), Sing it proud (Artie - Brittany),  
><strong>******Sing it still (Santana - Rachel), Sing it along (Finn - Mike), Sing it clear (Matt - Kurt)  
><strong>******DARES PT 2: Sang it out (Puck - Quinn), Sang it loud (Mer - Tina)****

_['This Old Heart of Mine' - Isley Brothers]_

Brittany was actually excited at the idea of them turning things around. Her part of it had ended up going very well, and that was thanks to Artie. He knew she had been hoping to get paired with Santana, and he had gone out of his way to make sure she still had fun… and she did. Now of course for this second half of the project she would still not be with Santana, still be with him, but that was alright. She was going to use this second part of things as a sort of thank you.

It wasn't like she didn't know he existed before all this. Maybe it was just a matter of his not being at eye level with her. But now she was very aware of him, especially with this attention he'd shown her. He'd gone from being some kind of robot, to being one of those guys she never really spoke to, then a guy from Glee Club, and now, just maybe… a friend.

After Glee was done, she had guided him to a class and, much like he'd done for her, she had sat down across from him and she had asked what he wanted to do. She was about to speak, but then she had a thought. "Oh, wait," she reached in her bag and pulled out her notebook and a pencil. She flipped to a blank page, set the book before herself, grasped the pencil and sat up before looking to Artie. "Now I'm ready," she told him.

"You know you don't have to ask me, you can just pick whatever you like," he reminded her, even if as he said it he realized it was a lot of power to put in Brittany's hands.

"I know," she insisted. "But I want to do it like this, for you," she told him, and he smirked.

"Okay then," he told her, then, "So what do you want to know?" he bowed his head. She considered his question, stared at the blank sheet of paper. After a moment she leaned in and started scribbling something he couldn't see. He tried to see, but her ponytail flipped over and rested on the paper, shielding his view. One time she looked up and caught him trying to see, which only made her close his view even tighter, until all he could see was blonde hair and her shoulder moving from moving the pencil across the paper. Every once in a while he swore he could hear her mutter something under her breath, but he could never make it out.

Finally her head snapped back up, ponytail and all and she ripped the page from her notebook before holding it out to him. With all the secrecy she had put into it, he tried and failed to not look too anxious to see what it was all about.

They were a list of questions, each one paired to a blank line he imagined was for the answer. After reading through all of them, he really had no better idea as to what she was trying to accomplish, as the questions didn't seem to have much to do with one another, or the song search.

"Brittany?" he asked. "I'm not… I don't understand," he looked to her.

"Well if I'm going to pick the right song, then I need to know you better," she explained.

"And these will do that?" he asked, looking back at the paper.

"Yes," she told him, offering the pencil. He looked at her and, knowing she wasn't kidding, he took the pencil and started answering the questions. It felt like he was taking a test, especially as he felt her staring at him the whole time. When he was done he put his pencil down and she took the sheet from him. She didn't read it, just stuck it back in her notebook and said she'd keep in touch to get him his song. He couldn't question her on it, so he let her go.

That afternoon, Brittany got home and after locating her cat, who for some reason was sitting in front of the book case, staring up, she went up to her room. She got out the sheet with her questions and Artie's answers. She read them each carefully… By that point she'd almost forgotten some of these questions she herself had written. After a moment, she reached for a marker and highlighted some of the words Artie had written. She stared at the paper for a while before moving to the computer, which had been left opened. She opened up the search engine and put in the words. She got the last one in, hit enter, and… Okay, maybe she shouldn't have put them all at once.

She was about to go and remove some of the bits, but then she saw one of the search results that had still managed to get spit out, and she tilted her head. Once she realized it was a song, she looked it up. It began to play, and she gasped, sitting back. "I'm a genius," she whispered to herself, writing the title down, making sure she wouldn't lose it, before texting Artie. Once she'd texted him, it wasn't completely stress free, of course. Now she had to wait to see both what he'd say and how he'd do. If anyone asked her, he would do fine, but maybe she was biased. But just a minute or so later, she got a reply saying it would be perfect. She smiled, now at ease.

Artie had practiced, and at last the day came for them to perform. Brittany was apparently casting herself in the role of the supportive coach, telling him he would do great and he had nothing to worry about, and even if he knew these things, hearing her say them could only bring him both comfort and fear. But then his turn came, and he saw his 'coach' giving him the thumbs up, so he rolled up into position. He signalled the band, and the moment they started playing, he had the rest of the club looking anxious for him to sing. So he did.

_[A] "Ooh, this old heart of mine, been broken thousand times / Each time you break away, I fear you're gone to stay / Lonely nights that come, memories that go / Bringing you back again, hurting me more and more_

_Maybe it's my mistake / To show this love I feel inside / 'Cause each day that passes by / You've got me never knowing if I'm coming or going but I_

_I love you / This old heart darling is weak for you / I love you, yes I do, yes I do_

_These old arms of mine / Miss having you around / Makes these tears inside / Start pouring down_

_Always with half a kiss / You remind me of what I miss / Though I try to control myself / Like a fool I start grinnin' 'cause my head starts spinnin' 'cause I_

_I love you / This old heart darling is weak for you / I love you, yes I do, yes I do"_

He gave his attention to his audience in general, not one in particular, although he did show recognition to Brittany where it was due. They weren't together in that way, but at that moment it didn't matter. This whole thing, it had drawn them closer as friends, and so he supposed as far as unintentional pairings went, this was a pretty good outcome for all of them.

_[A] "Ooh, I try hard to hide, my hurt inside / This old heart of mine always keeps me cryin' / The way you're treating me, leaves me incomplete / You're here for the day, gone for the week now_

_But if you leave me a hundred times / A hundred times I'll take you back / I'm yours whenever you want me / I'm not too proud to shout it, tell the world about it 'cause I_

_I love you / This old heart darling is weak for you / I love you / This old heart darling is weak for you_

_I love you / This old heart darling is weak for you / I love you, yes I do, yes I do / I love you, yes I do"_

When he was done, he got applause from all, but none louder than his 'coach', who gave him compliments and, somehow, tips on how to improve at a later time. He just bowed his head and gave her thanks. They had done good, both of them together.

THE END

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><p><strong>AN: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
><strong>**In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
><strong>********always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!********


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